which State had the most arcades bitd?

Illinois? Seems like an odd choice, but many gaming companies were based in Chicago area.
 
i'd go with cali although i'd like to say new york. just look at all the games available on the west coast, and the lower prices. the saturation of games, the "silicon valley" factor and production on the west coast leads me to believe it's cali.
 
new jersey had the most... all the boardwalks

Since I was young and didn't travel much I can only comment on this statement. My mall alone had 2 arcades in it. An Aladdin's Castle and a Gadgets which was like a Chuck E. Cheese for adults. Every boardwalk as mentioned pretty much had one. I used to play at Palace Amusements in Asbury Park BITD but every town's boardwalk had one. From Long Branch to Point Pleasant all the way to Cape May. Majority of the casinos/hotels in A/C did also.
 
BITD in Cali EVERY store seemed to have video games...

There were 3 liquor stores within walking distance to me. Each had at least 4 games...

Ace Hardware... 3 or 4 games and usually a pin or two!

Yum-Yum Donuts... a cocktail Ms. Pac and a Turbo.

Alpha Beta supermarket... Asteroids Deluxe and Pole Position.

The local pizza dives all had games...

Hell, the Chevron down the street and the Mobil gas across the street both had video games (Chevron had 3 or 4 Mobil had 2).

Dennys restaurant... 2 or 3...

I was also within driving distance of James Games, the Family Fun Center (both STILL OPEN actually!), Time-Out in the Mall, then there was the race track across the street from Family Fun Center that had a nice size arcade and of course the 7-11 between the two had 2 or 3 games.

The UA6 Theater I worked at had 8 games...

The YARN BARN has a freakin' Centipede.

Video games were just about EVERYWHERE...

EDIT: Almost forgot Roller City... the skating rink had at least a dozen games... nothing quite like mastering VS Excitebike on skates.
 
It was the same here in MI, every 7-11, bowling alley, grocery store, pizza place..etc
 
steve w, i'm originally from that area(asbury park) .correct me if i'm wrong but i remember mini golf coarses on top of the aracdes. i have a pic of me in one particular arcade. it's tuff to see but you could make out a game or two.circa 1975
 

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I'd say it was between IL and Cali. Reason being that most of the manufacture/developoers were in these two states. I know there were a few in FL too though.

Hell, the town I grew up in (Redwood City, Ca) had 9 arcades that I knew about. No telling how many more there were.

Matt

Matt
 
steve w, i'm originally from that area(asbury park) .correct me if i'm wrong but i remember mini golf coarses on top of the aracdes. i have a pic of me in one particular arcade. it's tuff to see but you could make out a game or two.circa 1975

Heck yeah. I'm not as familiar with Asbury Park(go Bruce) but I've spent a lot of time at Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights. I don't think the Point Pleasant rooftop golf is there anymore(since 5-10 years ago maybe?) but the Seaside one is and my cousins and I always play there. It's actually about 25 holes of mini golf across the 3 or 4 rooftops. Sadly the arcade scene in both places is much more limited now than it was when I was younger.
 
BITD in Cali EVERY store seemed to have video games...

There were 3 liquor stores within walking distance to me. Each had at least 4 games...

Ace Hardware... 3 or 4 games and usually a pin or two!

Yum-Yum Donuts... a cocktail Ms. Pac and a Turbo.

Alpha Beta supermarket... Asteroids Deluxe and Pole Position.

The local pizza dives all had games...

Hell, the Chevron down the street and the Mobil gas across the street both had video games (Chevron had 3 or 4 Mobil had 2).

Dennys restaurant... 2 or 3...

I was also within driving distance of James Games, the Family Fun Center (both STILL OPEN actually!), Time-Out in the Mall, then there was the race track across the street from Family Fun Center that had a nice size arcade and of course the 7-11 between the two had 2 or 3 games.

The UA6 Theater I worked at had 8 games...

The YARN BARN has a freakin' Centipede.

Video games were just about EVERYWHERE...

EDIT: Almost forgot Roller City... the skating rink had at least a dozen games... nothing quite like mastering VS Excitebike on skates.
You just described the early 80's all across the county, not just Cali.

Scott C.
 
I'd definitely vote California...even though I'm from NY. And I daresay that the current "survival" rate all has to do with weather. The warmer the climate, the better the chance that these babies survived in storage (and at outdoor locations). Additionally, they don't have the rain and humidity that the Southeast has/had to contend with. I'd also venture that you'd have more private owners due to the $$ in the state and the younger/flashier culture that would lend itself to a larger number of games in the home.
 
I'd definitely vote California...even though I'm from NY. And I daresay that the current "survival" rate all has to do with weather. The warmer the climate, the better the chance that these babies survived in storage (and at outdoor locations). Additionally, they don't have the rain and humidity that the Southeast has/had to contend with. I'd also venture that you'd have more private owners due to the $$ in the state and the younger/flashier culture that would lend itself to a larger number of games in the home.
I was at Wild Rivers in Irvine CA one time in 91 (happened to be the same day the 1st Lollapalooza was going on at the amphitheater that day-heard great music all day-it was very loud) and they had about 10 games OUTSIDE. But back in 88-91, I must have gone to at least 50 arcades that I frequented (not including the few arcades at Disneyland with 10+ Trons lined up and a few R360's, gas stations, liquor stores, grocery stores, theaters) in the LA/OC areas. Many mall locations, family fun centers, stand alones, it was great time to be a gamer with some coin.
 
CA would definitely be up on the list. Like many have said already, I can't remember a small business, bowling alley, pizza place, 7-11, etc. that didn't have arcade games.

I grew up in Moraga, CA which is a small town east of Oakland with less than 20,000 people and less than 10 square miles big. I could probably guess at one point, if you add up the locations, there were at least 20 arcade games in town.

The nearby cities like SF, SJ, Oakland, Concord, etc. probably had a good 10-20 locations each with arcades with about 2 to 40 games each location. You do the math.
 
My vote would be California as well. I know in the 80's games were every were all across the country but, even today in CA it seems like there are a good number of arcades still around. Not like in the 80's and not filled with the games we love from BITD but still a good amount of arcades and games on location. Off the top of my head I can think of 3 arcades within 15 miles of where I live. One bowling alley that has as arcade in it (15-20 games) a pizza place with 4 or 5 games, and an indoor baseball arena with about 7 games. If I drive a bit further I know of at least two bowling alleys with games and a number of food places like pizza and burger joints that still have games. These are all within about 30 miles of where I live. As for chains that are basically arcades, mini golf, batting cages ect all rolled into one I can think of scandia, boomers, and golf land. Then there's CEC although they are a little light on the actual video games these days. Mostly redemption. Most theme/amusement parks I know of have some games. Places like Great America, magic mountain, 6 flags discovery kingdom, Disneyland. As well as tourist attractions like pier 39 in San Francisco and Santa Cruz beach board walk. These are just the ones I've been in personally and can remember off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more that I don't know of or am forgetting. While the current state of arcades isn't a sure indicator of who had the most games BITD, I think it does hint that there may have been a lot here in CA.
 
You just described the early 80's all across the county, not just Cali.

Scott C.

I was thinking the same thing as I read the list. We were bike riding distance from 4 arcades and probably 2 dozen random games in deli's, laundromats and restaurant lobbies, and my hometown wouldn't be in the top 1000 arcade cities.
 
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